The 6 Best Location Tracking Software for Your Business in 2022
Finding the right freight tracking software can be challenging, especially if you’re unfamiliar with all the available products. This article will cover 6 of the best location tracking software options for freight brokers and trucking companies in 2022.
Growing Your Business with New Technology
Anyone who has worked in logistics understands the importance of tracking shipments. Knowing the current location of a truck or container is vital for the success of a shipper, freight broker, and trucking company. In recent years, a few fantastic tech companies have been creating powerful tools for tracking shipments. When growing your logistics business, you must keep up-to-date on the latest technology to better serve your customers. We put this list together to educate you on the widely used software for tracking shipments in the logistics industry.
What Are the Benefits of Freight Tracking Software?
- Enhanced shipping experience for customers: It keeps the customer up-to-date on the status of their shipment by sending them notifications. These status updates remove the uncertainty associated with not knowing where your shipments are.
- Identify cost-saving opportunities: You can find optimal routes for cargo, reducing fuel costs, eliminating dead miles, and improve inefficient lanes. Analyzing shipment data is must for shippers, brokers, and carriers. Anytime you can identify patterns in your shipments and improve those patterns. You’ll save money and time.
- On-time deliveries: Tracking software detects delays and alerts the shipper, which allows you to re-route or get the freight on new trucks. That will increase your chances of delivering the load on time. A happy customer is a return customer.
- Higher efficiency: By using performance metrics, like the accuracy of rates and on-time delivery, users can use data to negotiate future rates and show customers their proven track record. This leads to booking loads faster.
As a logistics business, you want to give customers complete visibility of their shipments and a seamless experience. Therefore, it is essential to pick the right tracking software considering your company’s goals and potential problems your business might face.
Shipment Location Tracking Software to Keep Your Eyes On
1. project44
Project44 provides tracking solutions for shippers, logistics providers, and trucking companies. It is probably the most known tracking software tool of recent years due to the large amount of funding it has received. Last year in June, it raised $202 million in a Series E funding round led by Emergence & Goldman Sachs. In January, it raised a Private Equity round of $420 million. (Source)
It is a software company that provides an excellent all-in-one tracking solution. If you’re a freight broker or logistics provider, you should go to their website and schedule a demo, where you could learn more about specific services and find out the cost. If you’re a carrier, we have some excellent news for you: it is free.
P44 integrates with most TMSs, trucking devices, EDIs, and APIs, making it easy to set up and streamline your existing software. Their support team offers help in various languages, and their robust security system keeps your data secure. If you are looking for a reliable, heavily invested partner, P44 may be the right fit.
2. FourKites
FourKites is a direct competitor of Project44. When I worked as a freight broker, Coca-Cola required us to have all drivers set up FourKites on their phones before pick up. To have complete visibility, many large shippers like Coca-Cola require that freight brokers and trucking firms set up truck drivers on the app before pick-up. FourKites has also received a lot of funding from investors (a whopping $201.5 million in total). Most recently, in June, FedEx announced its partnership and investment in the company.
Now you may be wondering what the differences are between P44 & FourKites. Overall, they are competitors and offer similar products. Gartner put together a comparison of the two companies, and they both ranked high for customer satisfaction.
3. Trucker Tools
Trucker Tools stands out from the rest of the crowd as being the friendliest owner-operator application. Altogether, the app offers 17 “trucker tools”. These tools include tracking, routing, fuel optimization, trucking parking info, rest areas, and weigh stations. The app also provides freight matching capabilities, helping owner-operators pick and negotiate loads.
With its vast network of carriers, freight brokers could also tap into Trucker Tool’s robust data to find trucking companies. On top of that, freight brokers could book carriers automatically with the Book It Now feature.
4. MacroPoint
MacroPoint is another direct competitor to P44 & FourKites. The app, as always, is free for truck drivers, so if you want to check it out, you could download it from your app store.
Having worked as a freight broker for six years, MacroPoint was widely used and discussed. Many drivers did not like complying with freight broker demands to set up the app and be tracked the whole time. However, if you want to service your customer and freight broker, you must follow the instructions. When requesting detention or layovers, tracking proof is the best way for a shipper or consignee to reimburse the broker and trucking company for their time.
MacroPoint is widely used by many freight brokerages and is often integrated automatically into their TMS (like Alvys). Due to the integration, it automatically sends location updates from the driver to the 3PL. If the driver is running behind it automatically sends an alert to those who need to be informed.
If you are a freight broker, it is an excellent investment to assure your customer you take them and their freight seriously. All customers love automated tracking updates because they plan their schedules accordingly. As a truck driver, it is best to understand the importance of installing MacroPoint. If you comply with the freight broker’s request and handle their freight well, you will receive many more freight opportunities.
5. Tive
Founded in 2015, Tive has set out to track not only the location of shipments but also the temperature, light, and humidity of the cargo. If you are shipping perishable goods or anything for that matter that goods that cannot be exposed to high/low temperatures or light, this is definitely for you.
Tive has become known for its great commercials. Here are a few links to check them out:
A Tive and Wild Wild West Commercial
6. TextLocate
TextLocate is a simple and easy-to-use tool designed predominantly for freight brokers. The platform sends a text with a link to the driver, the driver clicks the link, and the location is automatically inputted in the freight brokers TextLocate account. It is a great addition to any freight broker tracking team, as it helps drastically reduce check calls and drivers overall prefer a quick text over a phone call. The team at TextLocate is consistently adding new features at a great price. They even have a Free Version (20 pings per month) and takes about two minutes to activate. Click here to learn more.
Final Thoughts
Tracking software allows you to move freight reliably and efficiently. Finding the right freight tracking software will help you cut costs, improve customer experience, and ensures on-time delivery. Investing in technology will help your business and build customer loyalty. We hope that the information we have shared will be helpful for you in finding the right freight tracking software to solve your business’ pain points.
Written by Paul-Bernard Jaroslawski at FreightCaviar.
